The Unraveling of Brendan Meeks by Brian Cohn @BrianCohnMD @pandamoonpub

The Unraveling of Brendan Meeks by Brian Cohn @BrianCohnMD @pandamoonpub

THE UNRAVELING OF BRENDAN MEEKS is a first-person glimpse into the mind of a young man with schizophrenia as he deals with tragic loss. The result is a unique and unforgettable mystery clouded with hallucinations and fraught by paranoia.

Meeks is a young man born with a silver spoon jammed down his throat, a fact his domineering mother has never let him forget. Although he has nearly everything he could ever want—friends, money, a good education—Brendan’s life falls apart during graduate school when he begins to show signs of schizophrenia. Forced to drop out of school, he watches most of his friends disappear and his parents distance themselves further and further.

The only constant left in Brendan’s life is his loving sister, Wendy. When she turns up dead, he must ignore the insults and threats from the voices in his head to begin his own investigation. With the help of an odd assemblage of his few friends—a drug dealer, a meth addict, and a war veteran with a bad case of agoraphobia—he begins to uncover a conspiracy that may, or may not, be a byproduct of his own delusional mind.

HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS AND REVIEW

What an absolutely stunning book, the inside is just as unusual as the superb art work on this cover and it just blew me away!

Now we are rapidly approaching the end of October and Brendan Meeks has become my favourite new character of this year and to be honest I think it would take a mighty big person to knock him off that spot! This bloke battles on a daily basis just to survive, a constant need to balance his meds with a need to function as near as damn it to normal life, like everyone else. Most days he fails but he can lower the tone of the voices that constantly bombard him with abuse and suggestions of murder with a finale of killing himself, it just takes louder noise to drown them out.

Now mental illness can’t be bought off because if that had been possible than Brendan’s snobby mother would have had the cheque book out years ago. Instead she and Brendan’s father pay the rent on a flat for Brendan but little else, maternal she isn’t. The further away he is the better, out of sight out of mind. The only perfect gift they gave him was an older sister that had always been there for him. Well she had up to the day she had been murdered.

Having read Brian Cohn’s previous book, The Last Detective, this one had to be a must and boy oh boy this is belting. The story is told by Brendan, a man struggling with schizophrenia on a daily basis that feels quite compelled to find out who murdered his reporter sister and why.

I loved the dark humour and fabulous descriptions that Brendan uses to describe some of the other characters he meets in the story. It brings out a lighter side of Brendan that I loved. The voice in Brendan’s mind is set in dark writing so the flow of actual conversations with other people, Brendan and the voice works perfectly. This, at times, comes across as some very dark humour moments but also a better understanding of how very wearing down it must be in real life.

Now Brendan has to make one of the most bizarre amateur detectives that I have ever read about but it makes for a brilliant story and at times I even doubted situations and couldn’t distinguish which were good and bad guys myself. I so wanted him to succeed because he needed this, this was payment to the sister that had always been there for him. Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! Very highly recommended.

HERE IS A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian is an ER doctor practicing in St. Louis, Missouri, where he lives with his beautiful wife and their two rambunctious children. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama where he grew up loving to read. His passion for books continued through his college career at the UNC-Chapel Hill, and travelled with him back to Alabama where he attended the University of Alabama School of Medicine. He moved to St. Louis for residency training, met his wife, and fell in love with both her and the city itself. He has been practicing emergency medicine for over a decade and loves helping people every day, but turned to writing as a creative outlet.
A self-professed nerd, Brian has long enjoyed everything science fiction, from books to TV and movies. He is also a huge fan of great mysteries and thrillers, and is a sucker for a surprising plot twist. He writes the kind of books that he would want to read, reflecting a deep-seated curiosity about what motivates people to do the things they do.
When he’s not busy writing and taking care of patients, Brian loves to run, play with his children, and spend quiet time watching TV with his wife. If he can only figure out how to do all three things at once, he’ll finally have it made.